Astronomy Picture of the Day · December 2021

APOD, December 2021

31 entries from December 2021: 30 images and 1 videos. 27 carry a copyright notice from the credited creator.

The featured image shows the recent partial eclipse of the Moon with the eclipsed part appearing red and a blue band due to refraction of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 1, 2021

A Blue-Banded Blood Moon

Image Credit: Angel YuNGC 6822: Barnard's Galaxy December 2, 2021 · Copyrighted

NGC 6822: Barnard's Galaxy

Image Credit & Copyright: Dietmar Hager , Eric BensonComet Leonard and the Whale Galaxy December 3, 2021 · Copyrighted

Comet Leonard and the Whale Galaxy

Image Credit & Copyright: Gregg RuppelIridescent by Moonlight December 4, 2021 · Copyrighted

Iridescent by Moonlight

Image Credit & Copyright: Marcella Giulia PaceThe featured image shows the total solar eclipse of 2021 November 4 from an airplane flying over Antarctica. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 5, 2021 · Copyrighted

Total Solar Eclipse Below the Bottom of the World

Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek ( ESO Photo Ambassador , Inst. of Physics in Opava ) ; Acknowledgement: Xavier JubierThe featured image shows a silhouette of the International Space Station -- in great detail -- in front of the Moon. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 6, 2021 · Copyrighted

Space Station Silhouette on the Moon

Image Credit & Copyright: Andrew McCarthyThe featured image shows spectrograms for the first 90 gravitational wave events ever detected. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 7, 2021

Ninety Gravitational Wave Spectrograms and Counting

Image Credit: NSF , LIGO , VIRGO , KAGRA , Georgia Tech , Vanderbilt U. ; Graphic : Sudarshan Ghonge & Karan JaniThe featured image shows Comet Hale-Bopp over the Dolomite mountains as it appeared in 1997 Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 8, 2021 · Copyrighted

Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass

Image Credit & Copyright: A. Dimai, ( Col Druscie Obs. ), AACA Total Eclipse of the Sun December 9, 2021 · Copyrighted

A Total Eclipse of the Sun

Image Credit & Copyright: Theo Boris, Christian A. Lockwood, David Zimmermann ( JM Pasachoff Antarctic Expedition ) Compositing: Zev Hoover and Ron Dantowitz (MARS Scientific)Eclipse on a Polar Day December 10, 2021 · Copyrighted

Eclipse on a Polar Day

Image Credit & Copyright: Stephanie Ziyi YePostcard from the South Pole December 11, 2021 · Copyrighted

Postcard from the South Pole

Image Credit & Copyright: Aman ChokshiThe featured image shows Comet Leonard passing in front of globular star cluster M3. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 12, 2021 · Copyrighted

Comet Leonard Before Star Cluster M3

Image Credit & Copyright: Dan BartlettThe picture shows a volcano in Iceland in the foreground and both auroras and meteors from the 2012 Geminids in the background. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 13, 2021 · Copyrighted

Meteors and Auroras over Iceland

Image Credit & Copyright: James Boardman-Woodend ; Annotation: Judy SchmidtThe featured image shows dust pillar HH 666 in the Carina Nebula as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 14, 2021 · Copyrighted

HH 666: Carina Dust Pillar with Jet

Image Credit: NASA , ESA , Hubble ; Processing & Copyright: Mehmet Hakan ÖzsaraçThe picture shows a Comet Leonard from space. Also visible are auroras, a meteor, the Earth's atmosphere, stars, and satellite trails. The image was taken by Origin.Space's Yangwang-1 telescope. Please see the explanation for more detailed December 15, 2021 · Copyrighted

Comet Leonard from Space

Image Credit & Copyright: Zhuoxiao Wang , Yangwang-1 Space Telescope, Origin.SpaceGeminids of the South December 16, 2021 · Copyrighted

Geminids of the South

Image Credit & Copyright: Fefo BouvierGeminid of the North December 17, 2021 · Copyrighted

Geminid of the North

Image Credit & Copyright: Alvin WuStephan's Quintet December 18, 2021 · Copyrighted

Stephan's Quintet

Image Credit: NASA , ESA , Hubble Legacy Archive ; Processing & Copyright: Bernard MillerThe featured image shows a a sunset with the planets Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon, and Uranus all in a row. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 19, 2021 · Copyrighted

Planetary Alignment over Italy

Image Credit & Copyright: Antonio FinazziThe featured image shows Comet Leonard in the backround with a bright green fireball meteor in the foreground. The image was taken from northern California, USA. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 20, 2021 · Copyrighted

The Comet and the Fireball

Image Credit & Copyright: Cory PooleThe featured image shows a composite image of the Sun superposed on the Milky Way. The image shows the night sky you would see if the Sun was very dim. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 21, 2021 · Copyrighted

Solstice Sun and Milky Way

Composite Image Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip ( TWAN )The featured image shows a long exposure image of the launch of NASA's IXPE observatory to low Earth orbit. The launch was on a Falcon 9 Rocket by SpaceX. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 22, 2021 · Copyrighted

Launch of the IXPE Observatory

Image Credit & Copyright: Jordan SirokieThree Planets and a Comet December 23, 2021 · Copyrighted

Three Planets and a Comet

Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel ( TWAN )M1: The Crab Nebula December 24, 2021 · Copyrighted

M1: The Crab Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Michael SherickThe Tail of a Christmas Comet December 25, 2021 · Copyrighted

The Tail of a Christmas Comet

Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri and Lukas DemetzThe featured image shows the James Web Space Telescope as it appeared just after release by the upper stage of an Arianespace rocket launched from French Guiana yesterday, December 25 Please see the explanation for more detailed information December 26, 2021

James Webb Space Telescope over Earth

Image Credit: Arianespace , ESA , NASA , CSA , CNESThe featured image shows Comet Leonard and the rising plume from the Ariane V rocket launching the James Web Space Telescope. The image was taken from Thailand on December 25. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 27, 2021 · Copyrighted

Comet Leonard behind JWST Launch Plume

Image Credit & Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham ( NARIT )Sun Halo over Sweden December 28, 2021 · Video · Copyrighted

Sun Halo over Sweden

Video Credit & Copyright: Håkan Hammar ( Vemdalen Ski Resort , SkiStar )The featured image shows an image of Jupiter's clouds as captured by the Juno spacecraft in late 2021 November. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. December 29, 2021

Giant Storms and High Clouds on Jupiter

Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS ; Processing & License : Kevin M. GillThe Further Tail of Comet Leonard December 30, 2021 · Copyrighted

The Further Tail of Comet Leonard

Image Credit & Copyright: Daniele GasparriJWST on the Road to L2 December 31, 2021 · Copyrighted

JWST on the Road to L2

Image Credit & Copyright: Malcolm Park ( North York Astronomical Association )

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